Greetings visitor! At the time I started writting this build I felt like the ones that existed didn't really focus the tank role. Somehow on Season 3 Singed got some early popularity and that made some other builds appear such as the high ELO ones. I still consider mine a great one worth to look at due to its focus on tankiness and high synergy. I've tested and recently updated two diferent builds specificaly for Season 3 and adapted my old one from Season 2. The build is not very long so take your time to read it all since it will certainly help you to fully understand the build or else I wouldn't have written this all. Because of Mobafire fail calculation system I've personaly played games up to lvl18 and complete full build and take the champions stats from ingame information (ignore the stats at mobafire cheat sheet, and scroll down to items to see actual ingame stats). If you liked it, rate up and comment else rate down and tell me why so I can give some alternatives that might work for most people.

Below there are some Pros and Cons of Singed which may or may not tell you if is a good champion for you or not.

In the optimal build to reinforce the magic resist the runes should be full scaling magic resist.

The classic build more focused at the items bringing endurance we boost offensive power with ability power and magic penetration runes.

The alternative build we use a mix between AP and MR.

I recommend you to start with Fling as it does a nice ammount of damage in early game and if you're lucky you may get an easy kill with help from tower to get you a good start into the game, but it will be the second to max.

So your priority is Poison Trail as it will end up being your main source of damage most of the time and should be the first to max.

Insanity Potion should be evolved whenever possible (lvls 6,11&16).

Mega Adhesive may take an early point at level 3 but should be maxed last.

One quarter of your mana is added to your max health.

Being the main source of damage not just for easy farming but because of the poison effect which may seem innocent at first but as your enemies try to catch you they'll start to feel the pain of poison.

Slowing your enemies you should use it in front of the direction they are heading or blocking escape routes. It may also prove useful escaping from enemies (you're a Tank not a God), throw in front of you not at where you are.

Being the quickest way to inflict damage and its utility to pull enemies, it's a great skill that to be used at its best needs some training. You can use it not only to bring escaping enemies back to team fights or to your teammates running behind you, but also to be a life saver, just make sure you're pulling the chasing enemy further away not even closer to your friend. It's also a great pull for your jungler in your team.

Because it boosts all Singed stats you should not fear to use whenever you feel need even if you don't intend to attack, thanks to its low actual cooldown (70 basic cooldown - 25 active skill time = 45 unactive time). With help of Ghost it will be a great fight initiator combo and will help you throughout fights. Since it increases health and mana regeneration you may see need to use if you are low on health or mana, or just activate it to get to the action faster.

Because I've felt the old item chapter was a bit too messy I've decided to speak only about the Optimal Build, with some references on other builds. Not only because it has many items shared by both the other builds but because overall it's the best build as you can see below... (Statistics belong to Season 3, I'll update as soon as possible.)


On all builds you start with Sapphire Crystal. You won't be buying this just because of Empowered Bulwark, in fact you'll buy it so you can delay the early mana problems the latest possible, even though at a certain point you won't have them at all if you have good mana management, (I'll explain that in another chapter) so you don't need your teammates to give you the Crest of the Ancient Golem.
Along with Sapphire Crystal you may buy health potions while you don't get the hang of Singed but me for example I just prefer to save the 75 gold OR unless you face a counter champion such as Teemo but I'll mention the champions that can be counter and the ones that would counter Singed in another chapter.
Season 4 introduced free wards, since they're free there's no excuse to not take a Stealth Ward for lane phase. It's not worth to upgrade to Greater Stealth Totem I'd rather save it for other items.

From the Sapphire Crystal you should buy the Tear of the Goddess the earlier possible (unless you choose another build in which you go directly to Rod of Ages) so you can start stacking mana the quickest possible so when you buy later the Archangel's Staff you get it upgraded to Seraph's Embrace earlier possible.

Next you must buy Catalyst the Protector that builds into Rod of Ages, a core item for Singed. The Catalyst the Protector ensures you have an early sustainability in lane.

Follow that with either Boots of Swiftness or Mercury's Treads (as used in other builds). I prefer to go for speed provided by Boots of Swiftness usually when against an AD champion in your lane. But if you face an AP champion Mercury's Treads might be a good choice since the only MR we'll be getting early game isn't that much from the runes.
Important note, do NOT purchase the Enchantment: Alacrity just yet.

Onto the late lane phase beyond 10 minutes into game, it's time for you to upgrade your starting basic items into your core items. Start upgrade with Rod of Ages so you can start stacking it's passive the earlier possible. Follow that with the Archangel's Staff which later on, its passive will be a great way to indirectly increase your AP with it's mana conversion into AP, provived by both the staff itself but with the Frozen Heart later on.
After purchasing these items, now it's the time to upgrade your boots with Enchantment: Alacrity.

With the core items bought, onto the addon items.
Start with Frozen Heart that gives lots of armor and mana and cooldown reduction.
Next get the Athene's Unholy Grail to get AP and max your cooldown reduction. This item has a special effect. Once you get to 35% mana (you've used 65% of your mana), your mana regen increases to the point in which you can have Poison Trail activated at all times because the mana regen is the same as the mana cost of the ability. Although to get to such point you really have to be a big mana waster, something we're not expecting with the mana management tactics mentioned in the next chapter.

To finalize our build we aquire the Warmog's Armor to increase your health regen and health ALOT.

Either way for all builds, once your build is finish the only thing you might want if you really wanna squish out everything you can from Singed, buy the Elixir of Brilliance and Elixir of Fortitude. If asked by your team mates, you might also need to buy Oracle's Extract since you should be the one that will be able to carry it for the longest time.

Before taking into account tactics for Singed you need to learn how to manage your mana without the need of the Crest of the Ancient Golem since it's only from spells you'll do any damage.

The key to maintain mana is to not have Poison Trail always activated, sure it might frustrate you the fact you might sometimes be always turning it on and back off and when you need it on in team fights its off, it happens to me too but even tough it might seem to have a low mana comsuption, second after second along with Fling here and there you might find yourself with no mana left even to cast your Insanity Potion to get some of it back.

When farming with Poison Trail, only activate to make a line of poison at the route of enemy minions or at where their stationed. Basically cover their area and turn it off. If it's not enough to kill them, repeat once again but when it's maxed and with a couple of items, one time should be enough to clear the wave.

Jungling creeps you should deactivate Poison Trail some time before they die. Remember, poison is damage over so time last few seconds before it wears off so no need to have it activated until they die.

Only exception for you to have it always is when you have Insanity Potion activated (and even that sometimes isn't enough to keep your mana from draining) or when you have the Crest of the Ancient Golem.

Fling should only be cast on enemy champions, sure you might accidentally Fling a minion but don't play volley with them. Same with jungle creeps, don't Fling them over a wall wasting mana for no purpose.

If you choose to pick one of the builds with Tear of the Goddess, a good trick to stack it, is to do Mega Adhesive and Poison Trail once when at spawn for free stacking. Incase of the Healthy build, by the time you buy Archangel's Staff it should instantly upgrade to Seraph's Embrace.

Tips and tricks for Singed will be explained here, so read carefully as they won't just save you but also your team mates.

Learn how much damage you can take so when you face multiple enemy or burst attacks you don't get surprised by instant kills. Also be careful with Crowd Control even though in Season 3 thanks to masteries Singed doesn't suffer as much from it.

Cooperate with your team mates by pulling escaping enemies using Fling back to the team fight. You can also save your friends life by pulling further away your enemies from friends with low health, just make sure you pull them further not closer. Use Fling to pull blue/red at the beginning of the game to help your jungler.

"Play" with your enemies. This is the most complex tactic which is basically your behavior 1v1 or against multiple enemies and I will split in two parts: lane phase and push phase.

Lane phase: As I mention before, start your game with Fling since you might be able to pull somebody into tower for an easy kill. Early game (lvl1-4) be careful with farming, you are a great farmer but not yet. You farm from Poison Trail not basic attacks and at early game you don't have too much spare mana n'or health to risk being harassed by your opponent sometimes although that might also trick him into risking tower dive and when close to tower range you just Fling him over to tower plus poison and Ignite he might die. Once you have the Catalyst the Protector it will give you some sustainability in lane so what you need next is the boots to make sure you poison him for the longest poison and not let him escape to tower catching him with Fling, sometimes might be worth the tower dive, also if you have unlocked Mega Adhesive it might even help you further. If the problem isn't harassing but rather run just "play" with them. Go into bushes, surprise Fling go back, go further, basically make sure to spray them with poison and Fling them as a dodging technique if you're taking to much damage and you see you won't hold much longer just do like before, try to bring them to tower. If you're getting ganked by jungler I recommend you to retreat to tower just as safety measure that doesn't mean you can't double kill since they might think can outsmart you since they are outnumbered. If your lane is advanced and your lane opponent or jungler is far, to bring tower down you can activate ultimate for increased damage and easier escape if anyone comes to "shoo" you away.

Push phase: Being Singed such a great pusher let's just assume you've already destroyed first turret and you're going for the second, you can do it as easily as the first just be careful and keep looking at the mini-map, because if you see no enemy the odd that they are coming towards you are high and you might not be able to escape from a team as you would from 2. And if you fail to escape on time, another tactic to lose 'em is to fling enemies over walls. When initiating team fights you can either use Ghost or not that's up to you as long you Fling the carry. After you pull him activate Insanity Potion or if you fail to pull him, activate anyway to avoid being too much supressed. Remember that your main source of damage is poison so keep spraying it trough your enemies and Fling every time you can. Also if an enemy is running away throw Mega Adhesive IN FRONT of him if possible so that you might be able to pull him back to your team mates. Remember that Fling can also be a life saver as i mentioned before. If there are minions there are no need for you to tank towers but isn't because of a few turret hits you'll die even since in Season 3 a new mastery called Safeguard as been added to further help you in that, so don't fear to tank tower for the greater good of your team, and even so imagine that your team just aced and you're at late game (>40 mins) you should push as much as you can including tanking nexus turrets as it might mean the difference between a win and a defeat.

There are many aspects of Singed that can be mentioned these are the ones that are most obvious (some others are either too situational or I just do with such normality that I don't even realize of them).

Only champions that are most certain to be counter/counterable are mentioned, some others depend on the role it plays and player experience. For example: Jungle Malphite that ganks top can be countered along with your lane enemy but, if he is the one at top lane might bring you problems.

Singed is countered by:
Teemo, Dr. Mundo, Gangplank, Kayle, Pantheon, Braum
Watch your back against these ones, a more conservative defensive playstyle must be done. Make sure your jungler helps you keep them off your tower.

Singed counters:
Darius, Rengar, Mordekaiser, Jax, Shen
Don't fear these champions, just rape them to death. Although you must be realistic, a fed champion is always a fed champion and let me warn you that if your opponent gets 3 kills advantage in comparison to you, then you might be doomed already since you failed to recover the loss. You're forced to play defensive style until late game.

HeadinPants - Q: Why not use Rylai's Crystal Scepter and why max Fling second and not Mega Adhesive?
A: People often see Rylai's as a must have for Singed because it slows enemies but:
1. The slow is not total because is a multi-targe/damage-over-time ability.
2. I don't see slowing enemies as an advantage to lure your enemies into chasing you but rather to scare them away since they fail to catch you up.
Already in mind to make a more general build for other people to use, I mention if the player sees use for Mega Adhesive he may early unlock at lvl3 but for example myself I don't even unlock it until everything else is maxed. The objective of Mega Adhesive is to make sure your enemies don't run away, so you can catch them and bring them back to your team mates, you're the one suposed to catch it not your team mates, besides many people Flash over it dodging. Basicaly see Mega Adhesive as an utility tool that will help YOU reach enemies alongside your natural speed with help from Ghost and Insanity Potion.

Madreds - Q: Why not use Boots of Swiftness?
A: I was also curious about Boots of Swiftness when I saw it changed on season 3 but the reason I don't pick it in most cases is because:
1. The passive I already have from Relentless plus Tenacious masteries.
3. The speed of Boots of Swiftness can almost be achieved with Enchantment: Alacrity in Mercury's Treads.
3. Mercury's Treads have tenacity which also helps nullify slows. And even we take into account that instead of have 2x tenacity we have instead 2x slow reduction.